Document 17: Henry B. Blackwell, "The Case of Maria Barberi," Woman's Journal, 10 (August 1895), p. 252.

Introduction

       Henry Blackwell (1825-1909), brother of Emily and Elizabeth Blackwell and husband of Lucy Stone, was a hardware store owner, abolitionist, and women's rights activist. He remained steadfast in his devotion to the cause of women's suffrage until his death. In the following article, he argued that Maria Barbieri should not be held responsible for killing the man who had seduced her, because "if every man who seduces a child of 15 leaving her no practical alternative but suicide or a life of prostitution, were promptly put out of existence, the morals of the community would be vastly improved." The piece argued against the double standard that pervaded American criminal justice.

THE CASE OF MARIA BARBERI __________

        Maria Barberi is an Italian child, 15 years of age, reared in the slums, ignorant of our institutions, unable to speak our language, poor and illiterate. She has not yet reached the age of mental maturity. Under the laws of New York, if at any time during the next six years she should give her note or promise to pay any sum of money, the act would create no legal obligation, because she will not have arrived at years of discretion. She is a minor in the custody of her parents. A man of mature age takes advantage of her youth, her ignorance, her mental and moral immaturity. He seduces her under the promise of marriage by professions of love and affection. Then he boasts of his conquest, he degrades and repudiates her. He meets her expostulations with scorn and insult. The child's love turns to hatred. She goes wild with anger and despair. She kills him. She is found guilty of wilful murder, and Recorder Goff, at the request of the district attorney, sentences her to death.

        Under Massachusetts law this girl has been the victim of a rape. With logical consistency our statute holds that a girl of 15 cannot give a legal consent to the alienation either of her property or her virtue. Under the law of every nation, civilized or barbarous, extreme provocation and outrage are held to palliate or even to justify the fact of homicide. How is it, then, that in the case of this poor girl all such considerations are disregarded? If this sentence is carried into effect, who will be most truly guilty of the crime of murder--the seducer, the legal officials, or Maria Barberi? In the eye of reason and enlightened ethics the convicted criminal will be the least guilty of them all.

        The sentence of Maria Barberi is an object-lesson for woman suffrage. To be weak is to be miserable. Had she been a man 21 years of age and a voter, or even a boy of 15 years of age, the verdict would probably have been altogether different. Had Maria been a wife and her husband the avenger, he would have been applauded for the deed, and in course of time might have been made a major-general and a hero, as in the case of Sickles. Here is the odious contrast: For a man and a voter pity and acquittal, followed by preferment; for a disfranchised woman, even though a child, condemnation and electrocution!

        Such is New York justice in 1895. Clearly the Empire State is in a bad way. There is but one way to better it. Add to the voting constituency one million educated women who can read and write the English language. Then women will be respected, for power always commands respect.

        It goes without saying that I do not counsel or justify homicide. But, in the present state of society, if every man who seduces a child of 15 leaving her no practical alternative but suicide or a life of prostitution, were promptly put out of existence, the morals of the community would be vastly improved. This girl has had no trial by a jury of her peers. She has been tried, convicted, and sentenced by men alone. If half the jury had been women as should be invariably the case,--if there had been but one woman connected with the trial, no such cruel sentence of capital punishment would have shocked the moral sense of mankind.

        I appeal to Governor Morton, who holds the pardoning power, to rectify this great wrong. It is his official duty. He owes it to the honor of the State to see that this legal child murder shall not be perpetrated.

H.B.B.

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